Getting ready to represent India at the Paris Olympics, veteran Rohan Bopanna and N Sriram Balaji began their partnership with a tough loss in the opening round of the Hamburg Open on Thursday. (More Sports News)
Bopanna and Balaji have never played together on the ATP Tour before.
The sixth-seeded Indian team lost 1-6 4-6 to unseeded German team of Jakob Schnaitter and Mark ✱Wallner in the ATP 500 tournament.
Surprisingly, the Indians, w𓄧ho a🌺re very solid servers, did not win many points on first serves.
They dropped their serve thrice in the match and could not convert any of the three break point chancꦺes that they got.
Now Bopanna and Balaji have one more tournament to compete together before the Olympics. They will head to Um⛎aag to play Croatia Ope🅰n, which is an ATP 250 event.
Meanwhile, India's No.🅷1 singles player Sumit Nagal lost his pre quarter-final match a𝔍t the Nordea Open in Bastad 4-6 2-6 to fourth seeded Argentine Mariano Navone.
Had Nagal won this round, he could have had a possible face-off with the legendary Spaniard Rafael Nadal in the quarter-finals but the world No. 36 was too good for the Indian, who rཧecently gained five places in the ATP rankings to move to career-best rank of 68.
